PUR

I've always been somewhat of my environmental impact and try to do what I can. Recently, as I changed my water pitcher's filter, it reminded me to contact PUR's customer service to inquire about recycling their filters. I know Brita and Zero water have a recycling program. Here is the response from PUR:

Thank you for your recent email.

I would like to inform you that PUR has recently been purchased by Kaz Inc. from Proctor and Gamble.  Unfortunately, at this time we do not have a program or suggestions for recycling PUR products.  I would suggest contacting your local waste management company for recycling recommendations.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kaz is committed to offering quality customer service and we hope we have done this for you.  Please don't hesitate to contact us if you require further assistance.

Please visit our website www.kaz.com to view all of our current products and Web Specials/Rebates! The site also contains many Frequently asked questions, pricing, and the Owner Manuals for the products.

Nicholas Marszalkowski
Consumer Relations Specialist

I wish I had purchased a Brita or Zero water filtration system years ago instead of PUR. I wasn't aware back then of the issue. 

So now the question is, do I still stick with PUR (using what I already have, with no current solution, in hopes of future improvements in recycling)? Or purchase another system (spending money, purchasing a new system which is a waste of energy for a redundant product, and donate my PUR but not solving the landfill reduction in regards to filters)?

Landline

A good reason why we have the antiquated landline...

Any Sold Thing

It's no secret that I like lists. They are efficient and get right to the point. They sum things up at a glance. They keep count. They are easy to read, and even a joy to read. So here is a list of things I've sold on craigslist:

1. dining table
   
2. chairs
   
3. coffee dispenser
   
4. toilet
5. bath tub
   
6. shower doors
7. barbell and dumbbells
   
8. side tables
   
9. desk
   
10. filing cabinet
    
11. tower fan
    
12. bowls
    
13. plates
    
14. flatware
    
15. wine glasses
    
16. water glasses, mugs, water pitchers
17. table cloths
    
18. beverage tubs
    
19. area rug
    
20. bar stools
21. floor lamps
    
    
22. coffee table
    
23. book case
    
24. 2 printers
    
25. LCD monitor
    
26. bread maker
27. camera case
28. wireless mouse and keyboard
29. 2 motorcycles
    

What have you sold or bought on craigslist?

Dine In

We got a big new dining table recently and it's my dream dining table. What makes it my ideal table? It's solid (oak to be exact) - which means it's not going anywhere or will it tip over when you lean on it; it's round - which means no one sits at a corner; and can be extended to accommodate a bunch of people when needed, up to 8 or 10 (depending on how close everyone wants to be); it has a pedestal stand - which means no outside legs for anyone to straddle. Unless that's your thing of course, in that case don't dine here.

It also came with a table pad shown in the last photo, but I'm not sure what to use that for? Is that for card games? And if so, why do you need a pad to play card games?

I love my new table! I can envision homework sprawled out messily during finals, yards of fabric strewn across it for sewing projects, curtains being ironed (if I actually ironed them, does anyone actually do that?), piles of laundry folded on it, intense rounds of scrabble or bananagrams that couldn't be interrupted, and of course large feasts with friends and family (if they lived near).

And even if none of the above occurs, I just love that I could imagine it. Because it could.

I know that oak isn't really in fashion right now. Or old fashioned, traditional dining tables. Or even clunky wooden furniture. But I love this new addition - makes our house feel more like a home. Do you have a piece of furniture you feel the same way about?

Rotten Apple (tree)

I'm extremely late in posting this but one of our spring projects was trimming our apple tree. The right side was not sprouting any leaves and when we touched it, the branch nearly fell off.

We decided to use our trusty sawzall to trim up the tree a bit.

Or a lot.

While the beau was cutting, I was chopping the branches into little bits:

Into our new outdoor fireplace.

And our old fire pit.

And the rest we chucked behind the fence :)

(don't worry, it's still our property)

Keep Cool

It's almost July and we still haven't turned on our air conditioner (except a couple times here and there on rogue hot days).

Our southeast (I think) facing house tends to stay cool and this year hasn't been as hot as last year so far.

But I think these are a big contributing factor as well:

Not the guy, but the window he is standing next to. And 8 others windows like them. We've been using our heater less this winter and less this spring and summer as well. And saving on average about $10 each month on our gas bill.

Keeping this up for several decades and the windows would have paid for themselves!

For Japan with Love

Images from time.com

Under Foot

It's been a while since the last bathroom update so a lot has happened. Let me catch you up.

We removed the tile floor, toilet and tub and discovered that the subfloor had water damage. Then we discovered that the floor wasn't even properly supported for tile to begin with. So out the entire floor went:

The pipe in the wall is the plumbing vent. The towel is covering the toilet drain. The exposed wood beams are the joists above our newly remodeled kitchen. See how thin the plywood subfloor is?

This is where the sink vanity was.

This chaos is our bedroom.

The old bath tub standing up in our bedroom.

View into the master bathroom. It. Is. A. Work. In. Progress. Ugh.

New drain pipes for the toilet so that we can reposition the toilet away from the tub. One of them is backwards though. Whoops.

Another surprise was a joist in the way of moving the toilet over. We don't mess with structural beams so we were extremely lucky that we were able to move it over under the joist.

This is what we used to join pieces of the A.B.S. drain pipe that we cut to size. I like to refer to it as "Weld-On Abs". Wouldn't it be great if such a thing exists?

Welding action shot.

New position for the toilet. Moved over about a foot to allow room for the new (and wider) bath tub.

What has not been shown are the countless trips to the hardware store, because of all the times we messed up welding the pipes (third try was a charm though!). Certain pieces are hard to find and eventually were found at a large plumbing specialty store nearby.

Also not shown in the photos is how difficult/scary/frustrating working in a bathroom with no floor is.